Causes of childhood obesity: food factors and sedentary lifestyle

Obesity in children has become a common health problem. Obesity in children is a result of indulging in fast foods and spending time in front of the television or being stationary playing video

Supportive arguments

Food Factors

There is an over-abundance of food availability in America's supermarkets and restaurants, particularly fast-food restaurants (Hill and Peters, 1998). The portion-sizes of food in America's restaurants are unreasonable and uncontrolled (Hill and Peters, 1998). There is an increase in consumption of sugar-sweetened sodas and sweetend food (Bray, 2004). There is also an over-abundance of high-fat food choices paired with a lack of palpable low-fat choices. Most importantly, studies show that a diet of 35% fat or higher contributes to obesity in sedentary animals (Hill and Peters, 1998). It is no wonder that children having this unnutritious food become obese.

Sedentary Lifestyle

Another factor is the increasingly sedentary lifestyle that is due, in part, to advances in technology and transportation, as well as to the appeal of sedentary entertainment options, manifested by (for instance) television, video games and computers. Studies show that increased activity and improved aerobic fitness can significantly reduce bodyweight and prevent obesity, particularly in children (Epstein, Paluch, Gordy & Dorn, 2000).

Counter arguments

Pollen presents an interesting argument stating that it is the American food that makes us obese and nothing to do with the sedentary lifestyle. The industrial food chain that American man is sustained on is largely based on corn, whether in its direct form, fed to livestock, or processed into chemicals such as glucose, and the cheapest forms of these are high-fructose corn syrup and ethanol. The former, particularly, through a combination of biological, cultural, and political factors, appears in the cheapest and most common of foods that constitute the American diet. It is the ingredient that results in obesity, and, since it appears in the cheapest products, the ingredients that more poor, than wealthier individuals, consume.

His arguments are substantiated by research conducted by Bell & Standish, (2009) who demonstrates that it is economic problems that, to a great extent, develop problems such as obesity due to factors such as economic, environment, and peer pressure.

How did you address counter arguments without weakening your own premise?

I placed the most effective arguments in the conclusion in order to most effectively answer the counter arguments. I did not disprove the counter arguments. I agreed with them and then placed a strong argument to refute it. It was in that way too that I addressed counter arguments (bringing two to parallel the support arguments) without weakening my premise.